ISLAMABAD – Former Pakistani ambassadors called upon the government on Tuesday to hold United States (US) citizen Raymond Davis accountable under the laws of Pakistan and to take appropriate steps, such as the imposition of limits on the size of the US Embassy and consular missions in Pakistan and the thorough scrutiny of visa applications. Twenty former Pakistani envoys including Riaz Khokhar, Amir Usman, Amir Ali Shah, Mushtaq Mehr, Tayyab Siddiqui, Afzal Akbar Khan, Mohammad Qurban, Asif Ezdi, Kamran Niaz, Sher Afgan Khan issued a statement here on the diplomatic row between Pakistan and the US over Davis, an American arrested for killing two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27.
“We, the undersigned former Ambassadors of Pakistan, are concerned at the strains in Pakistan-US relations caused by the unresolved case of ‘Raymond Davis’, the holder of an American diplomatic passport working in Pakistan for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, who shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27, 2011 under suspicious circumstances,” said the statement. “Pakistan and the United States share important common interests, in particular the promotion of peace and stability of Afghanistan and of the wider region and need urgently to work together for the stabilisation of Afghanistan. The ‘Raymond Davis’ case should not be allowed to jeopardise this cooperation or their mutually beneficial bilateral relations in other fields,” it said.
The former envoys said the dispute over the “diplomatic immunity” of “Raymond Davis” revolved around the applicability and interpretation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and should be settled in the light of the provisions of the convention. “The US claim that ‘Raymond Davis’, a person with a fake identity, is a member of the technical and administrative staff of the US embassy and therefore enjoys immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of Pakistan rests on very flimsy grounds and cannot be accepted,” the statement said.
“In particular, the omission of his name from the list of embassy staff sent by the US Embassy to the Foreign Ministry on January 25, 2011 amounts to a notification of termination of functions at the mission under Article 10 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It follows therefore that he had lost whatever status or immunity the US government claims for him under the original notification of January 20, 2010.” “We urge the government, without further delay, to make a determination accordingly, as stipulated in the Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Act,” the statement said.
The former ambassadors called upon the US to refrain from threats and pressure against Pakistan and instead resolve the differences over the issue through amicable means. “We note in this connection that Pakistan and US are both parties to the Optional Protocol for the Settlement of Disputes under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which provides for the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of the convention. Either party is therefore free to take the matter to the International Court of Justice for adjudication,” said the statement issued by the former ambassadors.
They said the case also raised the question of abuse of diplomatic immunity. They said the fact that at the time of the shooting he was carrying an unlicensed handgun and was equipped with a GPS device, a pocket telescope, a headband-mounted flashlight, bolt cutters, a face mask, a satellite phone, a survival kit and 75 rounds of ammunition raised strong suspicions that he was engaged in undercover activities on behalf of the CIA against the security interests of Pakistan.
“We deplore the failure of the US authorities to cooperate in investigations by the Pakistani authorities into the death of the third Pakistani who was killed by a vehicle of the US Consulate General in Lahore sent to rescue ‘Raymond Davis’ and are shocked at reports that the US authorities helped the two US nationals who were in that vehicle at the time to leave Pakistan surreptitiously.
This is a clear breach of established diplomatic norms and of the spirit of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” the statement added. The former envoys asked the US to cooperate in investigations, to disclose the identities of the US nationals who were in the vehicle and to take steps for their return to Pakistan for the purpose of investigations and, if found to have committed an offence, to face legal proceedings under the laws of Pakistan. “We are deeply shocked at press reports that senior Pakistani officials collaborated in the departure of the two US nationals from Pakistan and call for a full investigation into this matter. Any Pakistani officials found to be involved in allowing the US nationals to escape should be brought to justice and given exemplary punishment,” said the statement.
